Misery Lotto
"Misery Lotto" was a band created in 2011 consisting of: Won Be Ni (bass-keyboard), Zekhra Zeviahn (piano), Betha Sail (vocals), Rebecca Fridge (guitar) and Sedan Hajiti (drums). Kazi Htolga got an offer to join, but refused and carried on alone as "Imaginary Husband". The band played monthly either in their own concert hall in New York, or the one in London, or Osaka, or Bejing or Hannover. On the stage they also often cover songs. The band is often called very multi cultural: Ni is korean, Zeviahn is iranian-canadian, Sail and Fridge german and Hajiti afghan. The band dissolved in 2025 for unknown reasons, after working together for 14 years. Betha Sail and Sedan Hajiti continued with other band members as "House Of Banshee", which is inofficially the Misery Lotto 2nd Generation version, but as popular as the first version. Rise in Popularity 2011 The whole "Misery Lotto" band project started in spring 2011. When Betha Sail decided to end her solo and duo career (With Kazi Htolga as "Imaginary Husband"). She had lot´s of old friends, wanting to get into the music business and as they all got along so well on several meetings, Sail decided to restart. Htolga wasn´t as keen as Sail to create a bigger band and decided to stay alone as "Imaginary Husband". In mid April 2011 came the first mini-album by Misery Lotto: "Kira Chuune", covering the hit "Killer Tune" by Tokyo Jihen. The original, with the english title is in japanese, the cover version by Misery Lotto, with the japanese title is in english. The mini-album sold avergly well - best in Japan. Shiina Ringo stated she liked the cover a lot and called it: "Kawai-Kowai!" "Sweetly Scary" Misery Lotto announced their first album "Candy To Eru" to come in the summer. Before they wanted to release more singles. The first one to follow "Kira Chuune" in the Phoenix Charts, was a cover of Amy Whinehouse´s hit "Back To Black", with a slightly changed melody, a month later, which entered the Top 5 of the International Phoenix Charts in May. It´s B-Side "Unconditional Love", also a cover from a Shiina Ringo song, charted too in May in the Top 15 of the National Charts and was popular with the Readers. This all led to Misery Lotto entering the Singer Charts for the first time: As third most successfull of the month. In summer 2011 the album "Candy To Eru" came, but suprisingly without many of the singles released before, instead it included later coupling-outs like "Anti-Alcoholic", "Counting The Days" (a cover of the Bic Runga song) and "Condor t", the most popular and only earlier released one was "Unconditional Love". The only single released between the first and second album was "You Got A Problem", which wasn't particulary successfull and widely ignored by the critics. Quite the opposite happened with the 2nd album, which was released before beeing announced: "Atomic Boredom" was a hit and in the charts for months. The critics loved it and so did the fans. The song "Kira Chuune" had a little comeback in the charts, when a piano version of the song was published as download at the internet page of Misery Lotto. The last single released in 2011 was "L+R", which stayed in the Top 40 from December 2011 to February 2012. 2012 2012 was a ruther unactive year of Misery Lotto, they went on their "Feed Candy To The Brain" - Europe - Tour in spring, but did not release anything until September of the same year: One single ("Never Let Me Go"), shortly followed by the 3rd album ("Brainwashing Is Fun"). The album was quite a success, but many critics found it a drop of quality since "Atomic Boredom", which had been put on the list of the 100 best albums of 2011 (spot 25) by the Rolling Stone magazine. The band did recieve grammys though, for the album and for the video to "L+R". The rest of the year went pretty quiet, except the monthly performance. The only other happening driving attention on it, was a little scandal around Rebecca Fridge, who claimed she had co-written songs for Björk, she never had been rewarded for. In court it was discovered, that Björk had let herself be inspired by guitar lines by Fridge, but they had agreed in 2011, to led the other use work, if it wasn't complete copying, so Fridge was not rewarded. The friendship of her and Björk ended at that point. 2013 2013 was a rather busy year for Misery Lotto. After the hit singles "1996" and "Yin-Yang Ice Cream" (which became the third best selling single of the year in Japan) and the less successfull album "Family Drug", the band went on tour in especially less developed countries, where they also gave concerts for free. The band's co-managers had disliked the idea, as some of the countries the band went to, were in not undangerous regions. These worries weren't unreasonable, as Zeviahn was attacked by a man with a knife hiding in a crowd of fans, when she was on the streets in her home country Iran. The happening was made more dramatic by the media, as it actually was, as Zeviahn was nothing more than shocked, as her bodyguards and fans helped to disarm the attacker and achieved that goal quickly. In September, shortly after the single "Sport Sucks And Kills" was published, a paparazzi caught Sail and an unidentified asian man kissing in a cafè, which ment quite a lot of rumors. Sail didn't reveal her secret, although she was asked over and over again, through the whole year. In October an particular intrusive paparazzi, was kicked by her angry bodyguard, after half an hour none-stop following and screaming the infamous question. In late October the band published their still famous first unplugged album "Classic Remedy", which sold even more copies than the 4th album and their first best-of album "Ugly Details Of Jazz Rock". Sail said later that she was unhappy with the names, as she'd liked the unplugged's and the best-of's name switched, as it would fit a lot better in that way. So many of her fans (and the Tragicomedy fans) refer to the albums Sail's way around. 2014 In 2014 fans and critics has to wait quite long for anything published, as Misery Lotto were working hard in the studio, but had creative blockades. Fans refer to the period of Misery Lotto's career as "The Great Blockade" and it was an world-wide-spread popular excuse to tell teachers in school one had a "Misery Lotto" - blockade. Then in summer the 5th album was announced, which followed various hit singles like "Alarm (I Hate)", "Nail Biting Is Tradition (Not History)" and "Hazard". The 5th album "Fish Is Illusion" was the first peak of Misery Lotto's career: The critics found it adorable, lots of other artists suddenly wanted to work with them or have them write songs for and with them and it found them a new older audience. All the members where in their mid-twenties, but they were mostly listened to by teenagers. "Fish Is Illusion" became such a symbol for progressive art rock it reached not only university students, but rock fans of all ages. In summer 2014 an anonymous scientist, who did research about age and interest, found Misery Lotto and their career development, their fan base so interisting, he decided to study them, until their era would end. 2015 In 2015 Misery Lotto faced quite a crisis, when their lead-singer Betha Sail took a time out and they had to replace her for their monthly performances: They decided to let all other members sing from performance to performance. It was Fridge in London, Zekhra in Bejing, Hajiti in New York and Ni in Hannover. The opinions on the performances varied a lot, the fan base split a bit, as some just wanted Sail back and others welcomed the change and found it good, that the other band members where in foreground as well. A fan group from the second group even published an inofficial download CD ("WE won the Lottery") in the internet, with songs from these performances. 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 Other Information Influence The Misery Lotto member have been all individually influenced by various artists, in 2020, they made a collection of who they altogether found most inspiring, in their Top 20 where: *Alanis Morissette *Ayumi Hamasaki *The Beatles *Bic Runga *Björk *Faye Wong *Lily Allen *Mastowka *Mucc *Shiina Ringo *Stina Nordenstam *Tokyo Jihen *Utada Hikaru Misery Lotto has also inspired a great range of young (new) artists, which also listed themselves in 2015 (many of them japanese pop artist who converted to alternative rock, because of Misery Lotto's influence): *Apple+Skeleton *Asaii *Aya Matsuura *Aya Kamiki *Black Mamba *Chatmonchy *iNeedChemicalX *Jaicca *Jajaneko *Kira Winter *Kuriyama Chiaki *Kuroshitsuji *Enomoto Kurumi *Mao Abe *Nadia *Olivia Lufkin *Scarabuss *The Ting Tings *Yui *Zemotion Discography *Kiraa Chuune *Candy To Eru *Atomic Boredom *Brainwashing Is Fun *Family Drug *Classic Remedy (Unplugged) *Ugly Details In Jazz Rock (Best-Of) *Fish Is Illusion *Azul Borrable *Art. No. 88/45 *Made In Hong Kong *Kypärän Käyttöönotoa *Gakko Wa Tsumara Nai *JPop Frog (Best-Of) *Traffic Swan *Polar Comedy (Unplugged 2) *L (All Works Best-Of) *Cats Are A Great Invention *Atarashii Watashi *Ama No Kawa *Südamerika *Richadis *Thingie-Machingie *Secret Samfund *آزادی برای عشق *Jib-Eul *" " *World Famous Design Junkie Category:Female Category:Band Category:European Category:Asian Category:Persian Category:Alternative Artist Category:CPop Artist Category:Electronic Artist Category:Indie Artist Category:JPop Artist Category:JRock Artist Category:KPop Artist Category:MPop Artist Category:Multi Artist Category:Pop Artist Category:Rock Artist Category:Soul Artist Category:TPop Artist Category:Jazz Artist Category:MRock Artist Category:German Category:Korean Category:Iranian Category:Canadian Category:Afghan